Saturday, December 1, 2007

The Bills last stand has to be tomorrow if they still want to think about the playoffs. Despite the embarrassment of the past 2 weeks, the Bills are in the fray in the AFC wildcard race. The current standings for the playoffs in the AFC taking tie breakers into effect are as follows:

The Bills are right in the mix, no matter how you look at it and how bad you think the team is, they are right in the mix. They play @Washington, Miami, @Cleveland, NY Giants, @ Philadelphia. I am not scared of any of those teams.

It all must start tomorrow. The Bills are taking on a team in Washington that has lost 3 games in a row and lost their best defensive player Sean Taylor earlier this week. If you are a Redskin fan you can hope that the team will rally around the passing of Sean Taylor and use the pure emotion to carry you through the day. The fact of the matter is, it was impossible for this team to prepare for this game during the week. In order to prepare for an NFL football game, your heads have to be 100% into the job at hand during the week, and for the players, football was the last thing on their minds.

It will be Trent Edwards getting the start for the Bills on Sunday and rightfully so. JP Losman has earned the right to be benched. He has played three consecutive awful games and last week when the team needed him to be at his best, he was at his worst. The Bills now need to find out what the rookie third round pick brings to the table and they have 5 games to do so. He has proven to be efficient in completing a high percentage of passes. He has proved that he can move the chains and keep our defense off the field. That may be the biggest key. The Bills defense cannot stop anyone so long time consuming field goal producing drives could be just what the doctor ordered.

Trent will have to work tomorrow with little or no running game. Fred Jackson is getting the start, the first of his career. Jackson is a small, fast, and illusive back who is a good receiver out of the backfield. He also showed toughness last week in converting a 4th and 1 on the ground. The coaches showed a lot of confidence in Jackson by giving him the ball in that spot. Edwards will look to pass to Jackson early and often as he might be the best pass catcher on the field tomorrow. In just the 2nd half last week, Jackson had 5 catches for 47 yards, only 3 yards behind the bills leading receiver on the game Josh Reed. Edwards loves the check down, so expect a lot of number 22.

The defense needs to play better. I don't expect much from them, but in the past 2 games they have surrendered 85 points offensively. They haven't come close to getting a sack and the defense took the ball away zero times. They couldn't get off the field on third down and just have not been able to stop opponents from scoring (4 stops in the last 19 drives by opponents.) The Bills coaches must come up with a way to pressure the quarterback. Any NFL quarterback, whether you are Jason Campbell or Tom Brady, will be able to have success if the defense cannot apply any pressure. It is time for the 50 million dollar man Aaron Schobel to make his presence felt. He will have to pick up his game with his fellow overpaid defensive end Chris Kelsay out of the game. The Bills 2nd year safety is a solid player, but it is about time he makes a big play. He only has one interception in his 2 seasons thus far. Fewell must be aggressive tomorrow. Bring blitzes from all different directions at Jason Campbell. The Redskin receivers are undersized just like the Bills so the corners should be able to match up with them. It is time for the defense to get back to it's mid season form when the Bills were running off 5 wins in 6 games.

So what are the keys to victory tomorrow?

First off the Bills must weather the early storm from the Redskins. There will be a lot of emotion in the stadium early in the game and the Redskins will feed off that. Just hang tough early and when the emotion subsides, the Redskins inability to prepare this week should show.

Trent Edwards needs to do what he does and move the chains. Control the clock and keep the Bills undersized, overmatched defense off the field. Get the ball to the backs out of the backfield and take what the defense gives you. Then, take an occasional shot down the field to someone if they can get open.

Steve Fairchild needs to find a way to get the ball to his weapons. Lee Evans, the Bills biggest threat, did not touch the ball until the Bills final drive of the game. Throw some wide receiver screens to Evans, get him the ball on an end around, do something to get him involved. Do the same with Parrish, just get the ball in this guys hands any way possible. The short passes to these guys might need to act like our running game this week.

Field position will be important so the Bills special teams needs to play better than they have. Morman needs to stop shanking punts, and the players need to stop taking stupid penalties. Roscoe, I am not sure if you know how to count to 11 but I am hoping you could have learned during the week so please make sure we have the correct number of guys on the field on a punt. How does a 12 men on the field penalty happen on a punt? Doesn't everyone know if they are in the punt team or not? It is inexcusable.

Prediction: The Bills will probably lose tomorrow but I am going to pick them to win just in case that they come through. The Bills really are worse than Washington all over the field but that is the case week in and week out. The Redskins are reeling and things in Redskin park have turned disastrous this week. Lindell has 4 field goals tomorrow including one in overtime and the Bills get the win 19-16.